Outbreak
by StarChibi
Summary: ...takeoff of bgc around characters based on my friends and the bgc happenings. very weird...r/r plz!!


**_Author notes: _um…what can I say? After being solely responsible for getting my best friends hooked on Bubblegum Crisis and being the resident storywriter I got coerced into writing a fic based on BGC. It's not with the characters we all know and love (cough cough) but my friends and me…sad, isn't it, but still…let me know what you think! The story line isn't original, some parts I made up…some I didn't.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Bubblegum Crisis (WAAAAH!!) someone else came up with the whole characters/ideas thing…but well,          THESE characters I did make up to take the place of the BGC characters, so I THINK that makes them mine. If it doesn't….DON'T SUE ME!!! I'M SORRY!!!

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**OutBreak******

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**Wedge Avalanche finished making the coffee and put it neatly on the tray.**

'It's no good then.' He sighed. A girl sitting on the kitchen bench shook out her blue hair.

'No, I destroyed our old suits but you've lost the plans, so we can't build more- and I don't think even Daniel's good enough to build them without the basics, or even another suit to copy off.'

'Damn! So, where's Kayli?' 

She grinned.

' She got the late shift at the infocentre.' 

'Poor Kayli. I take it you told Rio and Rina?' 

'Yep.' 

Wedge felt miserable. He had created the Knight Slayers as an organisation to destroy rouge androids, an increasing terror in Tokyo, seeing as the S.D (Special Division) Police were doing a botched job of it. He and Daniel, his friend, had built high-tech hard-suits designed on the bodies of four close friends- Rio, a nurse, Rina, a lawyer, Kayli and Zie, who both worked in the S.D Police. On their last mission, however, the rouge droid had turned out to be much more powerful than anything ever seen before. The droid had taken far to much energy to destroy, so the hard-suits batteries had worn out, and the girls had been forced to abandon them. The S.D Police had naturally seized them, and, before they could attempt to identify the girls or copy the hard-suits, Kayli and Zie had blown up the supply room, destroying the suits and all the hardware stored in the cores. The high-pitched doorbell rang across his thoughts.

'I asked Daniel and Rina to drop by.' Zie said, jumping off the bench, ' I'll get the door, shall I?'

' Oh, Jenkins will get it.' Said Wedge, a millionaire so used to being a millionaire he forgot he was one. 

' Hey guys!' Rina said, coming in. Daniel grinned and waved. Zie saw a boy about her age and height behind him, with messy black hair and dressed in sneakers, jeans and a white t-shirt. Daniel followed her gaze.

' Oh, this is Neil.' He said.

'Hi' said Neil quietly.

'He's a mechanical genius. I thought he could help us with our-uh- problem, Wedge.' 

Zie looked at the boy closer.

'Hey, I know you, you fixed my bike at S.D last week after Hayden crashed it!'

'Yeah, that was me.'

' Thanks again for that.' She touched the coffee cup, looked inside and pulled a face at the cold, congealing contents. The doorbell rang again.

' Hellooo-ooo!' 

Zie rolled her eyes as Rio and Kayli bounced in.

'How'd you get off work?' she asked the slim girl with tightly curled blonde hair, tied back in a loose bun. Kayli grinned.

' Oh, I got Brett to fill in.' she looked at Neil. ' I know you- you work with all the technical stuff at S.D, don't you."

Neil nodded from where he ha leant gently on the doorframe. 

' So, uh, Daniel? What's he doing here?' Rio asked the 23 year old, looking sideways at Neil as she spoke.

' Well, he's a mechanical genius so I thought he could help with-'

'Oh, right.' Sighed Kayli and Rio in over done understanding. Wedge put his hand on Neil's shoulder.

'Can you keep a secret, kid?'

' Sure, Mr-'

' Just Wedge. Good. Daniel- show him around, will you?' 

'Sure. Come on.'

Daniel led Neil off, Neil casting a curious glance over his shoulder at the talking girls before they descended. Just as they left, Zie and Kayli's pagers bleeped. 

'It's Brett.'

Zie made a dive to the phone and got there just before Kayli, typing in Brett's computer number. His image flickered onscreen. 

' Hey Zie, we got a rouge droid on the way to Chinatown, on 32. Hayden's unit's already moved out.'

'Right.' She slammed down the phone and pulled on her jacket. 'We gotta go.'

'Yeah, since the Knight Slayers are out of action we'll just have to blast it the old-fashioned way!' Kayli said, pulling her gun out of its holster and waving it around. 

' Careful, you could hurt someone.' Wedge said dryly as Zie pulled Kayli out the door.

'Come on, stop waving that thing around and get on your bike!'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm coming Mum.' Kayli muttered, sticking the gun in its holster and jamming her helmet on her head.

' I heard that!'

'Seeya!' Rio yelled as the two motorbikes roared away down the street.

'Aw man, not the K- suits.' Kayli groaned as she and Zie skidded their bikes to a halt and leapt off. 'Those guys always screw it up.'

' They just don't learn, do they?" Zie said, watching the silhouette of a bulky K-suit go flying. 

'Hey, Kayli! Zie! Over here!' Jesse, a young man a bit older than Kayli and Zie shouted, waving a hand in the air in their general direction. The girls walked over to stand near him and Hayden. Jesse was almost six feet tall, and had bright green eyes that seemed to darken when he was being serious. He had longish blue-black hair just above his shoulders, and was the complete opposite to his more unorthodox partner and friend, Hayden. Hayden was six foot with spiky blonde hair and blue eyes, and tended to think every woman in S.D was in love with him, a fact that put most of them off or earned him a lot of slaps. The foursome watched as the K-suits moved in again. K-suits were bulky metal suits, and the best that most modern technology could create, much to Wedge's amusement. They made the wearer look like block of fifteen compressed trucks with a tank thrown in. A K-suit flew through the air and they instinctively ducked as he smashed into the wall of a nearby apartment block. 

The scream they'd been hearing over their radios cut short.

' At least he went quickly.' Jesse sighed.

' Screaming.' Muttered eighteen-year-old Zie, who'd never seen the point of K-suits. Then she looked up at the name on the building. 'The apartment-' she looked at the huge hole the K-suit had made smashing through the wall. 'Mackey!' she sprinted off, threw open the door of the block and ran in.

'Wait, Zie!' Hayden shouted as she disappeared, groaned, and followed Kayli into the block, closely followed by Jesse.

'Who's- Mackey?' he panted as they ran up the fire steps. 'Boyfriend?'

'A kid she rescued once- he lives up here with his mother.'

'That was their apartment?' Jesse said, ' it's totally destroyed!'

Kayli didn't answer but sped up.

Zie couldn't open the door. She rammed it with her shoulder and it still wouldn't budge.

'Zie, let me-' Hayden began, pulling out his gun. She leapt up and kicked the door squarely in the middle with her heel. It burst open. Hayden lowered the gun and looked at Kayli.

'Where'd she learn that?'

'Kendo class, dummy,' Kayli said as they followed Zie inwards. Jesse and Hayden looked at each other.

'Mackey! Mrs K! Ma- oh crap.' Zie spotted a stream of blood trickling out from under a pile of rubble. Her three friends bent down to help her shift the stones, and finally Zie lifted a dead woman from the dust. Silently Zie passed the woman to Jesse and wiped a tear off her cheek.

'Mackey!' she yelled. 

Hayden came back from searching other rooms carrying a little boy with black hair and big blue eyes, covered in scratches.

'Mackey!'

' Zie.' he said, reaching out. She took him from Hayden and nodded her thanks. 'Are you okay?' Mackey looked tearfully t his dead mother and said nothing, crying silently onto her jacket. 

'Let's go.' Kayli said softly. 

' No father?" Jesse asked Kayli as Zie put bandaids on Mackey in a nearby ambulance with Rio, who had also been called on emergency.

' No.' Kayli said, shaking her head. ' Zie said Mrs K always told her he died, but she thinks Mrs K left him for some reason.'

' What?'

'She'd couldn't guess, but she figured it was something pretty bad because Mrs K is a pretty cool person.' 

Zie came over and the conversation stopped. She passed Mackey's hand to Jesse.

' Mackey, this is Jesse. Jesse's not that big on watching K-suits get blown up so I want you to make him take you to a nearby coffee shop.'

She winked at Jesse. 

' Get him whatever he wants,' she whispered, '_except_ coffee, he's allergic.'

'Okay. Come on Mackey.'

As soon as they had disappeared, Zie's casual manner disintegrated totally and she sat in Hayden's car and picked up the radio.

' You K-suits! Back the hell off and shoot from there, you're not doing any good!' she roared into it, and then slammed it down. Kayli was already on her bike and buckling on her helmet.

' You know me way too well.' Zie said as she did the same.

' Hey, where are you girls going!' Hayden shouted as they loaded their guns with special bullets Wedge had invented.

' These are only for emergencies,' Zie said into her helmet radio, ' But-'

' This is an emergency.' Kayli finished. 

' Hey! Kayli!'

Kayli and Zie took off directly towards the rouge droid, but Kayli blew a kiss a Hayden before she left. He sat down grumpily in his car.

'Damn.'

' You nervous Zie?'

' I'm shitting myself, but lets get this over and done with.' Zie replied tensely, and sped up.

'Hey!' shouted the commanding officer as Kayli and Zie flew over their heads and went up a makeshift ramp.

'Woo-hoo!' shouted Kayli as they jumped towards the droid, now metres away.

'Adrenaline freak. Okay, let it have it!' Zie shouted, firing directly at where the core should be. Kayli did the same, and narrowly dodged a writhing metallic tentacle only for both girls to get knocked off by another. The droid roared a few more times before falling silent and the feral red light in its eyes died. The girls skidded across the ground as K-suits pumped explosives into the dead thing. Kayli stood up.

' Ow, my butt. What's wrong?'

Zie had lain down and had a funny look on her face.

' I think I tore the seat of my jeans!' 

' Good work girls.' Wedge said. ' I'm proud.'

Zie muttered darkly into the depths of her coffee cup.

'What's up with her?' Daniel asked. Rio patted Zie's shoulder.

' Her bike got broken again.'

Neil, standing quietly by the door, hit his forehead with the heel of his hand and groaned to himself.

'- and her favourite pair of jeans got ruined.'

' Good.' Wedge said. ' Bloody awful jeans. All in all, a good day.' 

Zie glared at him.

'I'm starving, can anyone give me a lift to a coffee shop? I'll go see Mackey and then I'm going home.'

' Sure.' Daniel said, standing up, ' I'm pretty hungry myself. Anyone else coming?'

Rina shook her head.

' No, I can't be bothered, besides, I just realised I left my keys in my jacket, which is at your garage- I'll stay the night here.'

Rio and Kayli also declined the offer so Daniel gave Zie a lift to the coffee shop, dropping Neil off at his garage where he slept on the way. Neil didn't really have a home, and Daniel was like a big brother to the eighteen-year-old. Neil found Rina's jacket and put it carefully on a clean table, and went to bed. 

' Here you go,' Daniel said, pulling up outside the apartment block where Zie lived. 

' Thanks Dan. See ya tomorrow.'

' Yeah, bye.'

Zie took the elevator up to the fifth floor, where she lived, and took out her keys as she reached her door. Brett, a fellow S.D Police officer, lived opposite her and he opened his door as she unlocked hers. 

'Hi Zie.'

'Oh, hi Brett.' She said, pushing open the door. 

'Nice work on the droid, you and Kayli.'

' Thanks.' She looked at the question in his eyes. ' Rio's fine, incidentally, her shift tomorrow is two till eight if you're planning on getting injured.'

Brett blushed and said good night, shutting the door. Zie grinned to herself.

' Morning Jodie' Rio yawned to the girl at the desk. Jodie smiled in greeting.

' Hi Rio, did you want to speak to Kayli?'

' Yeah, and Zie. Can you tell me where they are?'

' They said something about exacting vengeance on a certain individual's motor-vehicle, whatever that means.' She looked at the grin on Rio's face and decided she'd be better off not knowing. ' Try the S.D garage.'

' Okay, thanks.'

Rio found her way through the blue corridors towards the quiet end of the Special Division. As she entered the vast garage, there was the familiar sight of dented cars and bits of motorbikes and in the corner her friends were tinkering with a car that most certainly did not belong to them. Kayli looked up and waved a spanner at her.

' Hey Rio!'

' Hi guys- what are you doing?" she asked though she had a feeling she knew.

' We're evening the score.' Zie said, full of gleeful righteousness. 

' Ah- this would be Hayden's car then.'

' Oh yeah.'

' What did you do to it?' Rio asked. It looked perfectly all right to her, but then, a lot of mechanical things did.

' Just loosened a few things. I promised Neil I'd help him put it back together.' She smoothed her hair out of her eyes, getting a big streak of grease across her cheek. ' You come here for any particular reason, Rio, or just to chat?'

Rio gave her a look.

' Oh. Right, well, there's a free office just here.'

The girls stepped inside and Zie locked the door before leaning on it and settling her gaze on Rio.

' What's up?' asked Kayli, seating herself on the desk and swinging her legs. 

'That Neil guy? He's a whiz kid. He's finished all the new hard suits.'

Kayli's legs lifted up together in her shock and she toppled off the desk. 

' What? It took Wedge and Daniel three weeks!'

' It took him three hours for two.' Rio replied. ' They're really cool; he's improved just about everything too. Wedge wants you to drop by tonight, he reckon's they'll be another attack, and we have to try out the suits.'

She still looked troubled about something.

' What's wrong?' Zie asked.

' Well- I overheard Daniel and Wedge talking, but apparently there was something big about that droid that cost us our suits last week. They didn't want to worry us, I think, but from what I heard, Wedge hacked into the S.D computer base and found that the droid has some weird ability to suck out and store energy, which explains why our batteries ran out so quickly. Wedge seems to think some old 'friend' is behind it and he's afraid if there's any more around, they could be more powerful. Daniel said we could be endangering our lives by trying to take them on, and they both agree that if what they suspect is true, its going to affect the city- big time- if some one doesn't stop it.'

There was silence in the small office. You could hear the ticking of their watches. They walked out, reflecting on it.

' I vote we just keep going until Wedge decides to 'fess up.' Kayli said. ' We can't make him tell us. Besides, Rio- no offence, but you could have heard wrong and then we'd end up looking like idiots.' 

Rio looked doubtful but nodded.

' Okay. Zie?'

' Yeah, sure.' She seemed a bit distracted, and Kayli followed her gaze and smiled. Brett was limping theatrically down the corridor, freckled nose screwed up in pain and barefoot, but that was probably because he'd been surfing that morning.

' Ow. Ow. Ow.' 

' Why, Brett, whatever is the matter?' she exclaimed. ' You'd better sit down.'

She gently took his shoulder and she and Zie eased the invalid down into a chair. 

' Rio, you'd better take a look.' Zie said. ' You're the nurse here.'

Rio reluctantly knelt down held his heel in her left hand, running her right over his ankle to check for swelling.

' I can't see anything wrong.' She frowned. 'What happened?'

' Well, it- er-um-' Brett stammered, realising he hadn't quite thought that far. Zie hit her forehead and Kayli shook her head. Rio raised her hand and-

_Whack!_ Smacked Brett's face so hand he tipped off the chair, shouldered her bag and stalked out. Laughter echoed around them as Zie patted Brett's shoulder and Kayli tried unsuccessfully not to laugh loud. 

' It was worth a try.' Zie told Brett, now sitting disconcerted on the floor with his head in his hands and blue eyes sad. He nodded miserably.

' We're he-re!' Kayli shouted, opening the door to Wedge's mansion. ' Yoo-hoo, Wedge!'

There wasn't a reply. 

'He must be below.' Zie said. ' Hi Jenkins, where's Wedge?'

' Master Wedge is in the readout station, milady.' Jenkins told her, bowing. 'Masters Daniel and Neil arrived earlier. They're waiting for you.' 

' So, Rio and Rina got here yet?' Kayli asked as they crossed the floor to the transport capsule, which was a very high-tech elevator Daniel and Wedge had thought up. 

' No, I believe Mistress Rina made arrangements to give Mistress Rio a lift. She complained about the cab fares.'

' Sounds like Rio. Coming down, Jenkins?'

' No thankyou, Milady. That thing always gives me a headache.' 

Kayli punched in the numbers and the transparent capsule whizzed down the chute.

Daniel looked up as a light flashed above a rounded double door.

' Well, Kayli and Zie are here. Which did you say their suits were, kid?'

' The blue and black one is Zie's and the red and purple one is Kayli's.' 

' Okay. Hi girls.' Daniel said as the pair walked into the room. 

' Hey Daniel. Hi Neil.' They waved before going into the dressing room. There they stripped, pulling on the skin-tight, somewhat immodest body suits that they wore underneath the hard-suits. Zie tied her hair up as they walked towards the suits.

' Hey cool. Nice job Neil!' Kayli said, slipping her leg into the hole. ' Ooh, cold.' 

' It'll adjust to your body temperature, just like the old ones.' Daniel said. Zie had slipped into her suit already and now pulled the helmet on and put up the visor. 

' Do we wait for the others or what?'

' Well, there hasn't been an attack yet, so you can just get used to them.' Daniel grinned as Kayli did a flip.

' Whee!'

' What's it like?'

' It's like wearing nothing! It's even lighter than the old ones!' 

Zie did an experimental somersault and flexed her fingers.

' Hey, Neil, what's the weaponry on this thing?'

' Oh, well, Daniel told me you liked street-fighting style, so you don't have any long range weapons.' Neil began, warming to his subject. ' You've got a power punch that will pretty much take out anything, this time though you can control the degree of energy put through the knuckle-dusters. The normal blasters are there, and I magnified their energy.  Since you all ride motorbikes, I synchronised you visors with your individual bikes, so you can see their readouts on the visor. Oh, and I added an energy crossbow to the bikes too, for anything like highway attacks and high-speed fighting-'

Zie stared at him.

' Cool.' She said finally, ' And Kayli's?'

' Kayli has her energy-spike shot boosted with extra power, like your knuckle-bombs. She's got the usual blaster and punches, of course, and her hard-suit is designed so there is an energy gun in an in-built holster on her thighs.'

Kayli swiftly pulled out the guns and twirled them around her fingers, just to demonstrate. The intercom bleeped. 

' Sir, Miladies Rio and Rina have arrived.'

' I'll never get used to the way he addresses us all as royalty' Zie sighed.

' Me either.' Neil smiled. 

Wedge, who had come in, waved at the two new arrivals as that came out from the changing room. Zie grinned as she caught Neil's blush. Kayli nudged her.

' I think our outfits are embarrassing our friend here.'

Zie nodded and pulled down her visor, making sure the helmet was sealed properly. 

' What are you getting ready for?' Rio asked her, ' Nothing's gone wrong yet.'

Zie pointed at her police pager lying on the table.

' Zie! Okay, fine.' A crackly voice came over the frequency, ' droid alert on 338.'

'Oh.' Rio said, ' Right, which suit's mine?'

' The blue and red one. Rina, yours the yellow and orange one."

' Right girls, Zie and Kayli, go now, you two can catch up once you put on your suits- Daniel and Neil, you run support with me.'

Zie got into the energy powered machine they called 'the launch'. There was a whir and a click and she was shot into the night sky, a twinkling star quickly followed by another, Kayli.

' Whee! These things sure fly faster!' Kayli shouted, on a high.

' Yeah.'

' Something wrong?'

' No, but look ahead.'

The floating highway was smashed in two pieces, and S.D cars and lights flashed around the wreckage. 

' Hey Zie, Kayli.' Rio's voice crackled over the Knight Slayer comlink. ' See it?' 

' Oh yeah, this is big. Hey Wedge, the highway's cracked.'

' What?'

' I mean-' Kayli gave up trying to find words, ' Look, tap into my visuals, you have to see it to believe it. Even that droid last week didn't manage to cause a five-lane concrete bridge to snap.'

In the support van Neil, Daniel and Wedge saw the wreckage through Kayli's visor.

' Oh man.'

' No sweat, we'll blow this thing.' Rina said breezily. ' There's the- whoa it's HUGE!'

' You noticed.' Zie said dryly. 

' There goes a cop car.' Kayli observed as the white car careered off the bridge. 'I hope that wasn't Hayden, it's the kind of stupid thing he would do.'

' I don't think even Hayden's that foolhardy.' Zie reassured her friend. Then added, ' I don't think so, anyway.'

The Knight Slayers streamed in, landing on four points around the droid. Kayli was pretty sure she heard Hayden swear, and relaxed a bit.

' Yah!' Rio squealed, and dodged a waving pipeline. ' Wedge, what do we do?'

Wedge looked at the battery readouts.

' Shit. Uh- okay, Zie, Rio and Kayli distract it, Rina, go in and crush its core. And do it _quickly_.'

' Yessir.' Rina said, moving out of the way to let her friends infuriate the thing.

' Here we go again.' Hayden growled. Jesse snickered into his hand as the surrounding unit lowered their guns. They watched the blue and black Knight Slayer smash five pipes and the red and purple one riddle the droid's hard hide with glowing spikes. It roared.

' What're they doing? Why is the yellow one just standing there?'

Jesse rolled his eyes.

' They're distracting it. I think the yellow one's waiting…'

'Huh? What for?'

The blue and black one suddenly slowed in mid-dart and froze, and was snatched out of the air.

' That.' Jesse said as the yellow Knight Slayer launched itself at the android.

' Shit.' Wedge repeated, looking at Zie's battery status. The energy had gone, except that which stayed in wires running through the suit, so now Zie couldn't do anything.

' Rina! Hurry up!' Zie shrieked, ' It's trying to fuse with my hard-suit!'

' All right!' Rina yelled back, and drove her fist into the droid, grabbed the core and crushed it in her hand. Rio smashed the immobile droid's hold over Zie and slung the girl's arm over her shoulder. Cracks ran through the hard-suit.

' Zie? Zie?'

' Hmm? Oh I'm fine-' she answered. 

' Rio! Is she all right?' Daniel shouted. 

' I think she's okay, nasty cracks in the armour though.'

' I can fix that, just get her back to base.' Neil said.

' Right. Thanks kid.' Rina said as they took off. Neil sat back and looked at Wedge.

' How old are they?'

' Well, Kayli, Rina and Rio are all nineteen, but Rio's actually a year older and is turning twenty soon- and Zie's eighteen.'

' Lets get out of here.' Daniel said, starting up the engine.

' I'm only a year younger.' Neil said rather sulkily. ' And she doesn't call Zie kid.'

' That rather depends on what Zie's doing.' Wedge smiled. 

Zie got wearily out of her hard-suit and collapsed into a chair.

' Ooh, Wedge- next time, _I'm_ smashing the core!'

' Whatever you say Zie.'

She sipped some water and looked around.

' The other's left. Kayli said something about Hayden and a car that was due to fall apart, Rio had an emergency call and Rina decided she was tired and got Daniel to drive her home.'

' Neil?'

' He's still here, fixing your suit. He's very dedicated.' 

' How bad is it?' she asked, following him into the main room.

' Nasty cracks through the helmet, back and sides where the damn thing tried to fuse with your suit, but Neil says he can fix it easily.'

' Oh good.'

' Did you want a drink?'

' Oh, yes, coffee please.'

' Sure. Take it easy.' He patted her shoulder and wandered over to the transport, taking it up to the kitchen. Zie watched Neil work for a while and listened to the peaceful click-click of his tools. She walked over.

' How bad is it?'

' It won't take long,' he told her, ' you're lucky though, if Rina had been any longer, you'd probably be dead.'

Zie sat down and passed him a screwdriver.

' We have to save each other all the time.'

' Don't you get scared?'

She laughed shortly.

' All the time.'

' So why do you do it?' Neil asked, gently pushing a piece of metal into place. Zie looked at her hands for a while.

' I dunno. I like it, I guess.'

' What about being a cop?'

' Yeah, same reason.'

Neil pressed a few buttons on the panel next to him and something clicked. The cracks fused together, and he stood up.

' Good as new.' He said, and shyly held out a hand to help her up. Zie hesitated before taking it, and stood. 

' Thanks.' Then she winced and put a hand on her side.

' Are you okay?' he asked, looking at her closely.

' I'm fine.' She said, but he forced her hand away from her waist, and gingerly touched the area she'd had it on. 

' It's only a little cut.' She said as he raised an eyebrow at her and showed her the blood on his fingers.

' Little cuts don't bleed that much. You need stitches.' He said firmly, ' Let's go see Rio.'

'Let me get changed first!'

' Oh yeah…'

' I can walk, you know.' Zie said to Neil and looked at the girl behind the desk.' We're looking for Rio Yamada.'

' Sure, she was free last time I checked. What's up, Zie? Who's your boyfriend?'

' He's not my boyfriend.' Zie said, blushing, ' Where is she?'

The girl grinned.

' Try the third corridor. Come on, what's his name, at least?'

' Neil.' Zie sighed, and hurried around the corner. Neil shrugged at the giggled girl and followed her. 

' Hey, Zie, what are you doing here?'

' Rio! Oh, hello.' Zie skidded to a halt.

' You've got blood on your shirt.' Rio said accusingly.

' She needs stitches,' Neil said to Rio, ' Ignore whatever she says.'

' Damn right I will.' Rio grabbed Zie's hand and dragged her away down the institutional hallways painted that special green-white you get when you forget to take the blanket off the lawn for three weeks…

' Zie.' Rio said, staring at her friend's side.

' What?' 

' You've got a tattoo.'

Zie looked uncomfortable, and it wasn't just the fact she'd just had her side stitched up.

' I mean, I know Rina's got a tiger on the small of her back and Kayli and Wedge are always arguing about the effect her belly-button ring has on her suit but you are the last person I'd expect to have a dragon on her waist!'

Zie sat up and pulled her t-shirt down, covering the stitches and the tattoo.

' Zie, why have you got a tattoo?' Rio said in the tones of an investigator asking a serial killer why he'd dunnit. 

' Zie has a tattoo?' Neil said, coming in from getting hot drinks. He put them on the table. ' You're kidding.'

Zie picked up her coffee and blew on it.

' Nope, It's of a dragon.'

They both looked at their friend, sitting meekly on the bed. The bell, or the pager fortunately saved Zie. Her's, Neil's and Rio's all went off at the same time. 

' Rio.'

' Rio, Daniel. We got a droid tearing up the street three down from Wedge's place!' 

' We're there.' Rio grabbed her friend's hands and dragged them out.

' Uh- Rio?'

' What?'

' We came on a motorbike.' Neil pointed to Zie's bike.

' No problem.'

Neil and Zie looked at each other.

' This. Is. Ridiculous.' Zie stated in the manner of someone saying the sky was blue and Kayli liked shopping. ' Left!'

Neil swung the bike left into Wedge's driveway. Zie jumped off from where she had been precariously balanced on the front. They'd had to take off the screen. Rio climbed off from behind Neil as he cut the engine and put the screen back on Zie's bike. 

' We're lucky you're a cop. That was illegal.'

' Very,' Zie snorted, ' I can imagine this on a report. Zie Sakira was forced to arrest herself for riding in-between the handlebars of her own motorbike, due to a friend's mad ambition to kill her. The friend was, surprisingly, a nurse.' She glared at Rio, ' Real good public image, do you realise we had to go past the S.D station?'

' Yes.' Said Rio, trying unsuccessfully not to laugh. ' He he he. Place yourself under arrest, Miss Sakira.'

' It's not funny!' 

Neil joined them as they walked through the door into Wedge's mansion. 

' For your birthday, Rio, I'm going to get you your own motorbike.'

' Oh goody!'

Zie rolled her eyes at Neil as they got into the elevator.

' We're he-re!' Rio shouted, running in. Neil headed for the readout board, and the girls for the changing rooms.

' Get changed.' Wedge snapped. Kayli and Rina were just getting into their suits. Soon all four Knight Slayers shot into the night and headed towards the smoke and rubble now only two streets away.

' Well, at least it's not as bad as the other one.' Zie sighed.

' So let's blow this thing and go home.' Rio said, ' I haven't forgotten about that tattoo young lady.'

' Zie has a tattoo?' echoed everyone except Zie, Rio and Neil. Neil leant back and put his hands behind his head.

' Yes, its of a dragon.'

Daniel and Wedge exchanged glances. No way were they going to ask _that_ question. Neil noticed.

' Oh, no, nothing like that!' he added hurriedly. They breathed out in relief.

' Oh, there's Hayden and whats-his-name-again?'

' Jesse.' Kayli supplied helpfully. 

' That's him.' Rina nodded as they landed. ' They always here?'

' Nearly. Okay. I'll go in, you three distract it or injure it.' 

' And Zie?' Wedge said.

' Yeah?'

' Don't get caught this time.'

They heard an exasperated sigh as she smashed a hole in the droid.

' Whatever.'

Rio's energy crossbow swung out from her right arm and loaded. She fired, and the gleaming bolt of energy sho through the night and buried itself in one of the thing's eyes.

' Go, Kayli!'

The red and purple hard-suit blurred as Kayli jetted towards the roaring droid. She pulled out the core and crushed it swiftly.

' Good work girls.' Wedge said. ' Let's go.' 

' So what's all this about a tattoo, Zie?' Kayli said curiously.

Zie reluctantly pulled up the side of her shirt to reveal the curled up black dragon about the size of a teacup. She let the shirt drop.

' I was drunk.' She said, noting the looks on their faces. Kayli and the others stared at her for a moment, and then burst out laughing, except Neil, who was making a very poor attempt at hiding a grin once the initial shock had worn off. After a minute, Kayli fell off her chair. 

' Kayli?' Zie said suspiciously.

' Ye-es?' 

Zie looked around. People immediately turned around and seemed very interested in their work, which gave the entire thing away because no one in S.D did any work if they could help it. 

' Did you tell everyone is S.D I had a tattoo?' 

Kayli tried to look innocent and failed miserably. 

' What makes you think that?' she said, and immediately wished she hadn't.

' Well,' Zie said and counted off on her fingers, ' Hayden got down on his knees and begged for mercy in the middle of the foyer, Jesse kept looking at my back in a very strange way, Jodi won't talk to me, one of the girls in the infocentre said she didn't know bikies with a proven history of murder were allowed to become cops, and best of all which is the dead giveaway, you can't look me in the face.'

' Well-' Kayli said, getting ready to run.

'_ What did you tell them?!'_

 ' Uh-' Kayli said, and ran. Zie ground her teeth and turned as Chief James Grant opened his office door and called out in a mild voice,

' Zie? Can you come here for a second?'

' Sure, sir.'

'Zie-'

' Yes, sir?'

' You know I encourage strength in my officers, physical fitness and healthy respect from the public.'

' Yes, sir.' Zie said obediently. 

' I appreciate, however, sometimes some members of this branch may feel a little under-whelmed with the work they are assigned-'

'Sir?' Zie said, beginning to have a bad feeling about the conversation's direction. 

' But what's all this I hear about you being an ex-biker and killing all males that opposed you?' 

Years from then, Zie thought later that day, she'd probably find it extremely funny that everyone had thought she'd been a teenage horror and mass-murderess, roaming the streets and killing all males that voiced a positive opinion towards patriarchy. Right then, she was as mad as hell.

' KAYLI AKIMOTO YOU GET YOUR ARSE HERE NOW!' she screamed down the hallway. 

Kayli had been talking to Brett, winced as the shout echoed into the garage, and hit Brett as hard as she could on the jaw. There was a crack of bone and a look of intense pain came over Brett's previously surprised expression. 

' Whoops! Emergency!' she said, pushing him into a high-speed chase car and rushed him to hospital.

' Oh Ri-o?' Kayli said sweetly.

' What?' her friend said suspiciously. 

' A guy at work broke his jaw. Could you fix it?'

' Sure' Rio said, and then saw who was waiting. ' Oh, no, not him!' and made a run for it. Kayli had calmly grabbed her friend's collar and now waited for Rio to realise she wasn't getting anywhere. Finally she stopped trying to run on air, and glared at Kayli.

' All right, I'll do it! Just let me go!'

' How dumb do you think I am?' was the reply. ' Come on, Brett.'

' Tanks Rio.' Brett said through clenched teeth, and winced as she grumpily slammed the end of the bandage down with a piece of tape.

' You'll be okay, in a month or two. You'd better apply for sick leave.'

' No surfing?'

Rio gave him a funny look.

' No.'

' Aw.'

' You actually thought you could go surfing?' asked Rio as they walked out; amazed someone who was a cop could be so naïve. 

' Well, dere wasn't any harm in asking.' Brett winced at the effect the bandage had on his speech and looked around at the empty, key word there being empty, waiting room, and carefully stopped a smile, remembering what Zie and Kayli had told him. _You can't show her you're happy that you're being forced to hang around with her, idiot. Rio likes it when she can have a friendly insult competition. _It hadn't, and still didn't, make any sense. But neither did women, so he didn't bother trying to figure either out. 

' Looks like Kayli left. Now how am I going to get back?'

Later Rio wondered if Kayli had paid Alanna to shout, 

' Hey Rio, your shift's over!'

Brett didn't look expectantly at her. Nor did he even suggest she take a step with him. In fact, Rio noticed, he looked as if he was decidedly against the idea. Maybe he'd gotten over her. Well, good. It was easier to handle a guy that didn't like you rather than one that did.

' Come on.' She said, ' I'll give you a lift.'

' Oh no I can-'

' Shut up and come with me.' She snapped, picking up the keys to Daniel's car.

' You're so not the boss of me.' Brett argued.

' It can be arranged. My friend's a lawyer.'

Zie went to visit Rina, and got by the secretary by waving her badge in a threatening manner in her face.  She knocked on the office door.

' Come in!'

Zie came in.

' Hi Rina.'

' Oh hello Zie. What's up?'

' Everyone in S.D thinks I'm and ex-bikie feminist murderer.'

' Oh. Kayli?'

' Lucky guess.' Zie said dryly.' Neil's the only one who'll look me in the face.'

Rina looked amused.

' I'll bet he is. And enjoys it too, I imagine.'

' What's that supposed to mean?'

' Nothing, nothing. Are you off duty?'

' Yeah.'

' Want to do lunch? I'm starving.' 

' Okay. Your treat mind, I'm broke.'

The door shut behind them.

' Oh no.' Zie groaned and shrank into the corner of the booth. 

' What?'

Zie didn't answer but counted down on her fingers.

' – three, two, one-'

' Hey Zie!' Hayden grinned, sitting next to her. Zie smiled faintly and ate her noddles. 

' Who's your friend?' Hayden asked, pointing to Rina. Zie was embarrassed; it was the kind of incredibly rude gesture he would make. Kids under eight pointed at people a metre away and demanded their name.

' Rina.' Rina said, and saw no reason to continue talking to him. Kayli always said Hayden could be a really nice guy. Zie agreed, if first he could learn to get over himself. It did not appear to have happened yet.

' What do you do? You a cop too?'

' I'm a lawyer.' Rina told him in the tone of someone who's got all the aces and knows the other guy's just bluffing. 

' Oh. This is my partner, Jesse. You'll have to sit next to her, buddy.'

Jesse slid into the seat next to Rina. She studied him carefully. He was almost completely opposite to Hayden. Hayden had blue eyes, spiky blonde hair and stood just over six foot, and dressed in jeans, leather jacket and a shirt. Jesse had blue-black hair, which had a little wave in it, and came almost down to his shoulders. Jesse wore an almost black blue shirt that had an orange stripe around it. He didn't carry a gun or wear a S.D Police badge like Hayden did. He didn't look like a cop, and she said so. Jesse turned green eyes on her.

' Looks can be deceiving.'

' Not in your case.'

' How would you know?'

' I'm a good judge of people.'

Zie snickered.

' What about that boyfriend in year 9- and liking that guy from-'

' Zie, shut up.'

' Yes ma'am.'

Jesse had been studying Rina in much the same manner as she'd looked at him.

' Well I can't say you look much like a lawyer. What's you last name?'

' Suzuki.'

' Rina Suzuki?' He raised an eyebrow. ' Weren't you the one that punched a police officer?'

' He didn't have a warrant!'

Hayden and Zie exchanged glances.

' And you also set up a mini-explosion in the courtroom to demonstrate how a much bigger one couldn't possibly kill five million people in your case for a man charged with that- it ended up blowing off the top of the courthouse. Police blamed it on a droid.'

' Someone rigged it.'

' How old are you? Nineteen? How does one that young cause that much trouble?'

Rina glared at him.

' And I'd like to know how the hell someone who looks like a librarian can dig up so much dirt on people and still be living.'

' Oh, I'm a librarian now?'

It was a standoff. The green gazes locked and held. Hayden and Zie stared at them.

' Rina, you have to be back at work in ten minutes. Rina?'

' Right.' Rina tore her eyes away and snatched up her bag.

The two girls left.  It was then Jesse and Hayden noticed the bill sitting innocently on the table. Jesse, still furious at being called a librarian because even a cop that never really wanted to be one wants to at least get the respect that comes with the job- snatched up the little piece of paper and ran to the door.

' Zie Sakira, get back here right now you little brat!'

Zie had just pulled on her helmet. Now she gave him a cheerful wave and roared away down the street. The bill crumpled in Jesse's clenched hand.

' Grr.'

Zie Sakira, the little brat and damn proud of it, pulled up into the S.D garage and found a sight she'd never thought she'd see. Rio and Brett _talking._ It was like imagining Jesse surfing, although at the moment she rather suspected her life depended upon not telling him that. 

' Good grief.' 

' Weird, isn't it.' Neil said from behind her. She turned.

' Hi Neil. I'll say.'

' They were arguing like anything when they came in, though in Brett's case rather slowly.'

' I was wondering about that bandage. What happened?'

' Could you give me a hand with this? Oh, rumour has it Kayli broke his jaw to get away from you.'

Zie helped his load the box onto a trailer.

' Can't imagine why.' She said innocently. Neil grinned at her. She grinned back. 

' Yoo hoo, Wedgie!' Zie sang as her image popped up on screen.

' Zie, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that!'

Zie was in one of her infantile moods, so she laughed infuriatingly.

' Guess what? Rio and Brett are talking!'

Curiosity overtook Wedge's anger. It had to travel very fast. 

' What? Without killing each other? Are you _sure_?' 

' I doubt Brett would kill Rio, he's been obsessed with her since they met.' She laughed.

' I realised. You say Rio's talking back?'

' Quite animatedly.'

There was a pause as Wedge reflected on this unusual behaviour in his friend.

' Is she on drugs?'

Zie actually appeared to entertain the thought of this. She looked behind her at Rio, and turned back to the screen.

' I doubt it. She is a nurse.'

' Hmm. I should book her in for a CAT scan soon, if I were you.' Wedge said thoughtfully.

' Not a bad idea.' She said seriously, then added, ' did you want to talk to Neil? He's right here.'

'No, it's okay. Bye, Zie.'

' Adios amigo.' She signed off, winked at Neil and looked thoughtfully at her two other friends talking at the end of the garage. She kicked a barrel. It thunked onto the floor and bounced. Neither Rio nor Brett blinked. Zie grinned and dialled Kayli's number.

' No way!' Kayli shrieked, ' I'll be right over!'

She grabbed her jacket and ran outside, leapt on the bike she'd borrowed and roared away from the restaurant. 

Back at his mansion, Wedge's previously good mood had vanished into thin air and he watched in shock as his scanner picked up hundreds of rouge droid's- all in the S.D department. He slowly turned around as a siren sounded and he saw words on the screen he'd never hoped to see activated. 

****

  


**Rouge Device Activated**

Power: Maximum

Efficiency: 100%

Area: Special Division Department, Tokyo.

' No!' he yelled, smashing the glass across the room in a violent fit of rage, 'Are they INSANE?'

Rina had received Zie's call and ran into the S.D department. Zie, Neil and Kayli were already there. Together they walked towards the garage.

' Actually talking?'

' Yeah.'

' Are you sure you weren't hallucinating?'

Jesse skidded around a corner and ran straight into Rina, knocking her over.

' Jesse, what's wrong?' Kayli said, helping him up. Rio pulled Rina to her feet.

' Are you guys all that's in here?' he gasped.

' Yeah, everyone else is on lunch break now, why?'

' We've got to get out!'

' Jesse!' Rina shouted, grabbing his shoulders, ' Think straight! What's going on!' she shook him. Something in his manner made her think it wasn't a S.D joke, which often got played on outsiders. He gulped and took a deep breath under her laser green gaze, and looked at the others with a slightly less nightmarish expression.

' Its all the dead droid we stored in the cellars. They're all coming back to life and talking over the building!' now he was getting panicked again, ' I don't know where Hayden is and there's hundreds of them and, and-'

' Alive? What? Their cores are gone!' Zie said.

' It doesn't matter!' he shouted as Rina let go of his shirt. ' I swear to god, Zie, they're heading up and up and they don't give a shit if you get down and beg for mercy or damn straight run!'

Kayli turned to Zie.

' You're best at interpreting crap. What did that mean?'

' It means its not another lame Hayden joke and those droid's will kill us. They want something.'

' Yeah, blood.' Jesse muttered.

Neil and Zie had been thinking along the same lines and now both looks over their shoulders in the direction of the garage, which was two floors above the cellars.

' Machinery.' Zie said in a curiously flat voice. Neil looked at her.

' They fuse with it.'

' Lots of machinery.'

' Lots of power.'

They looked at each other.

' Rio and Brett!' they shouted, taking off down the stairs.

Rio heard a crack.

' What was that?'

' Dunno.' Said Brett, standing up. 

' It's quiet.' Rio said, and they listened. ' Too quiet.'

Brett kicked open weapons box and passed her a heavy gun, taking one for himself. She stared at him, and then pushed the automatic reload. The metal felt reassuring under her hands. Then the concrete floor at the opposite end erupted and the angled, black and orange-red shapes of the rouge, reincarnated droids spilled out, making the weird groaning, roaring thumping noises that Rio had heard from inside the relative safety of her hardsuit. Their red glowing eyes turned on her and she and Brett fired into them. Only a few were knocked down. Some lost arms, some lost legs, but nearly all of them continued their eerie walk towards them. 

' Shit.' Brett swore, sweating as the pair backed away towards the door at the far end.

Suddenly the front line lunged. Rio's brain unfroze. She screamed.

' Rio, Brett, get out!' Zie shouted as she skidded into the corridor, and then stopped in horror. Neil skidded to a stop beside he, and faced the same metal wall as she had. They heard a scream.

' That was Rio.' Zie said certainly, ' they're trapped.' 

Neil frantically pressed buttons on the control panel. They didn't work. He swung his fist into the panel, smashing everything. Sparks flew up around his torn hand as he withdrew it. Zie looked at him in surprise. He shrugged.

' You have a tattoo.' He said as the door slid up. 

' Zie!' Rio shrieked. She was trapped against the wall by a droid. It was indescribably ugly and Neil had no trouble believing that if Zie and Rio had their hard-suits that could kill it in seconds. But they didn't, and that was what worried him. Without them, they were a nurse and a teenage cop with one handgun between them against about- oh; say a few hundred to a thousand or two mad droids. Zie looked around desperately and leapt onto a bike, kicking the support away. She kicked a droid in the head and revved it up.

' Zie!' Hayden shouted, appearing around the corner with the others. ' Kid!'

Neil remembered what Wedge had said to him once. _Zie's eighteen, and she doesn't call her kid. Wedge smiled. That rather depends on what Zie's doing, he said._ Neil didn't see anything childish about what Zie was doing, except perhaps that it was suicidal. Ah, so that was why Hayden had called her that. But _he_ probably didn't have anything better to do.

' Zie!' he shouted. She turned around and looked at him through the helmet. Kayli go the idea.

' Good idea.' She said, racing out and jumping on a bike.

' Wait, Kayli!'

Kayli made a rude sign at Hayden and Zie looked at Neil.

' Be careful!' he shouted. She nodded and headed straight for Rio.

Hayden glared at Neil as Kayli headed for Brett. Neil hadn't noticed before, but Brett was standing on top of a car and shouting abuse at the rouge droids while he shot at them. Hayden turned Neil around roughly.

' Why didn't you try and stop her?'

Neil struggled but stopped and looked up at him evenly.

' What makes you think I could have stopped her?'

The icy blue gaze melted a little and Hayden stepped back. Rina nodded at Neil. Hayden watched Kayli's bike jump straight into the pile of droids, knocking them flat for a few seconds. In those few seconds Kayli leapt off the bike and pushed Brett towards the door. Brett skidded to a halt but a droid grabbed Kayli's ankle.

' A little help here!' she shouted, trying to kick the gruesome hand away. Hayden fired into the thing that passed as a wrist and pulled her up.

' Thanks.' She said. He nodded and put his gun away. Neil winced as he watched Zie's bike knock the droid holding Rio to ground. Zie hit the floor and rolled, blasted the things hands and Rio scrambled to her feet. The two girls sprinted to the door. As she ran through behind Rio, Zie fired her gun into the machinery, and the door slammed down. Behind the door, a droid pounded it in fury and the group watched, panting, as huge dents appeared in the door.

' You all right?' Brett asked Rio.

' Fine.'

Neil looked questioningly at Zie as she took off her helmet and tossed it to the ground.

' I'm okay.' She said. He relaxed a bit.

' You get way too worried.' Kayli was telling Hayden, ' you know that girls are just as good as guys, right?'

' Well yeah, its just most girls don't usually send their motorbike flying into a mad droid and survive.' He said. She grinned cheerfully at him. Now and then Rio, Zie and Rina saw Kayli's point. Hayden could be a really nice guy. Sometimes it bordered on pathetic. Fortunately, that didn't happen very often. Zie took her pager from her belt. It was beeping.

' Zie.'

' Get OUT!' roared Wedge, ' There's-'

' Rouge droids? Yes, we know. Rio and Brett almost died, Wedge.'

She looked up, as there was a very, very unfriendly crashing noise. It sounded like doors slamming down in all directions.

' Wedge?' she shook her pager.' Wedge! The signals dead.'

' It's the firewall.' Neil said, white as sheet, ' No transmissions, no entry, no exit.'

' What do you mean, no exit?' Hayden snarled as if it was all his fault.

' There's no way to get out.' Zie said. ' Isn't there anyway?' she asked Neil desperately. 

' You're not going to like this.' He said, and pointed up.

' The roof?' Rio shrieked. ' That's-that's-'

' Seventy three storeys.' Jesse said glumly. ' Oh brother. Why did I come to Tokyo?'

' Your family is in the country.' Hayden reminded him as they ran off towards the stairs.

' Oh yeah.'

No one suggested the elevators. They weren't working. Besides- no one really wanted to know what might happen if the elevator stopped and droids were at both ends of the shaft.

' The firewalls!' Wedge slammed his hand on the bench. Daniel collapsed. 

' I knew they were a bad idea! Can they get out?'

Wedge fumed as he smashed buttons.

' One way. The roof. Daniel, get the hard-suits. Put them in the helicopter.'

' Wedge-'

' Do it!' Wedge roared,' Do it, Dammit!'

Daniel did it. No way was he going to argue with Wedge in this mood.

' I need my hard suit!' Rio shouted kicking a door as she went past. ' Uh-oh.'

' Hard-suit?' Hayden said at the same time as Jesse and Brett. The girls and Neil swapped worried glances. 

' Ah!' yelled Rina. The floor was twisting beneath her feet. They sped up. 

' Don't-look-back-' panted Kayli. Zie looked back.

' They're behind us!' she shrieked, 'run faster!'

' What a- good- idea.' Panted Hayden, stopping Kayli from tripping.

' What part of " Don't look back" don't you understand?' she asked Zie. 

' Sorry. What-'

Ahead of them, doors were slamming down at twenty metre intervals. They looked about as penetrable as a lump of granite. 

' Faster!' Rina shouted, pulling Jesse along from where he'd fallen over. ' Come on, librarian.'

' I'll show you who's a bloody librarian.'

Rina had worked out what section they should all be in. She could see the writhing floor and the advancing army of droids. And she also saw Zie trip, two metres away. Neil skidded to a halt but Zie pushed him back hard into the section, just as the door slammed down in between him and her. 

' Zie!'

They all stared in stunned horror at the blank wall between them and Zie. It was also a wall in-between them and the droids.

' Oh no.' Neil whispered. 

Zie scrambled to her feet and looked blankly at the grey steel wall. Then she spun around and stared at the mass of droids five metres away. She couldn't think straight, do anything, except stare*. She backed against the wall and the droids stared blankly at her. She wasn't sure what they wanted. She didn't care. She pressed her hands against the steel as if it would somehow bring her in contact with one of her friends. She shut her eyes, then opened them and wiped away a tear on her cheek. If she was going to die, she wanted to die knowing how, when and who. She wanted to die bravely, even if no one was there to see it. She glared through tears at the closest droid as a warped talon hurtled towards her and let out a choking breath.

They all heard the scream and the sickening wrench of bone and steel as a bloodstained talon seared through the wall. 

' No-' Neil said, kneeling down and touching a drop of blood that had dripped onto the floor. Kayli collapsed against Hayden. Jesse and Rina stood, stunned, while Rio kicked the wall in a tearful rage, shouting,

' The barstards! Those bloody BARSTARDS!'

Suddenly the doors slid up, and Neil stared a droid in the face. He raised his already bloodied fist to hit it but Brett jerked him away.

' We can't let you go too, kid.' He said, smiling weakly. ' Run.'

* It is indeed a strange fact of life that when confronted by sudden death the human mind simply cannot think of anything. Before hand of course, everyone says, ' Before I die I will whisper your name' or, ' I will scream defiance at the enemy,' or in some cases, the doctor. Everyone says that they have a specific checklist to run down before they die but when it actually comes down to it, no one can remember it. The sheer dissonance of the situation seems to put the brain into neutral.

And they ran. They ran faster than before. Before they reached a corner, Neil stopped and looked back. Amongst the black and red-orange of droids, he saw a limp shape of blue and white.

Wedge punched the air.

' Yes! I got the inner walls and the comlink up.'

He dialled Zie's number. No one answered, and he could hear a faint thumping and moaning. 

' Zie!' he shouted. There was no answer. Daniel went white as Wedge looked at him. He tried Kayli's number.

' Kayli.' A choked voice said.

' Kayli! Are you okay? Whats wrong?'

' They got Zie you barstard!' Kayli screamed, ' She's dead, d'you hear me, dead!' 

Daniel dropped his coffee. The cup smashed into fragments, and the hot liquid splashed over his legs totally unnoticed.

' What? How?'

' You guys really don't want to know.' A different voice said. ' You really don't. Just tell us how to get the hell out of here!' 

' Run another three floors, and then climb the ladder two. We'll be there.'

Hayden signed off.

' Five flights left.' He said, ' we can make it.'

' Speak-for-yourself.' Rina panted at him angrily. Jesse stole a glance at her.

' Now who's the librarian.'

' Shut up and run.'

' Up the ladder. Now!'

No one questioned Hayden giving orders. He did it naturally. As Rina pointed out later to Kayli, giving orders and simply bossing people around were totally different. Rina sprang up the ladder, then Jesse and Rio, Brett, Neil, Kayli and Hayden. To their shock, metal writhed and knocked Rina off the top. Jesse caught her wrist. She looked up in surprise.

' All right?' he asked, lifting her to his side and giving her a boost up.

' Yes. Not bad for a librarian.' She said, starting climbing again.

' Looks can be deceiving.'

They grinned at each other. Below them, Hayden raised an eyebrow. Hullo, he thought, I do believe Jesse likes someone. This is new. His line of thought was interrupted when the ladder shuddered violently. I don't want to know, he thought grimly, and made a point of not looking down.

' Move!' he bellowed upwards.

Rina and Jesse reached the top. Rina couldn't get the trapdoor open. She hit it and sighed.

' Won't open?' he asked her.

' Ten out of ten for observation.' 

' Zie used to say things like that,' he said, ' let me have a go.' He climbed up and reacher over her head with a pocketknife.

' She rubbed off on me.' Rina shrugged. ' What are you doing?'

' Picking the latch. There.'

He pushed it open. 

' Ladies first.' He said, managing a passable bow on a ladder.

' Thankyou.' She climbed up and saw the helicopter.

' Wedge!' she cried, running over. Kayli scrambled out of the hole followed by Hayden. 

' It's about bloody time we got here. I'm going to recommend we knock down at least twenty storeys off that thing.' She complained grumpily as they took off. Then there was one of those lulls in conversation you get and everyone, as one, looked down on the S.D building. 

' She's wouldn't want us moping.' Rina said after a while. 

'No,' Neil smiled faintly, ' she's probably up there shouting, ' what the hell are you guys doing? Come on, move it, find out who caused this and kill them for me!'

' You did that pretty well.' Hayden said.

' I was her friend.' Neil shrugged, ' we spent some time together.'

He was lying down on the floor and looking down at the building. Metallic tentacles spread everywhere and waved at the helicopter. Kayli reached for her gun. Hayden pushed her hand back.

' It won't do any good, not now.'

She glared at him and then slammed her fist angrily into the wall before relaxing and shutting her eyes. Memories flitted across the back of her eyelids. _Kayli, it's not fair, you always get on the fort first! Zie pouted. That's because I'm better than you. Kayli replied, grinning…_Wedge changed gears in the silence of the helicopter…._Wow! You got a motorbike! Kayli gasped. Sixteen-year-old Zie swung herself off it and grinned, my dad bought it for me for making the S.D, she said. Kayli folded her arms and theoretically sulked. Zie looked at her worriedly. Did you want a ride? Kayli cheered up immediately. Duh, she told her friend…_Someone was crying softly…_Do you know what he did? Do you know? He crashed my bike, that's what he did! Zie fumed in a rare display of temper. Kayli stared. What, the one you got for- Yes! Zie shouted, Oh, I'll get him for this if it's the last thing I do!…_Kayli opened her eyes. Neil hadn't seemed to blink. Rio was trying to relax by making everyone drinks in the small galley. Rina was sitting, curled up in a corner next to Jesse. They were holding hands, she noticed. Loosely, but still. She could almost hear Zie tell her it could be an accident. Not likely, she told her friend silently, and smiled. She got off the chair and sat down by Neil. They both looked at the building for a while.

' You liked her, right.'

He paused and nodded slowly. Kayli realised the only people he ever really talked to were Rina, Daniel and Zie. She put a hand on his shoulder, and he twisted his head to look at her. Dark blue eyes were more shiny than normal.

' She was great.' He looked back at the S.D building. ' I'll miss her.'

' We all will.' Kayli felt like she was comforting a ten year old. Zie and Neil were only a year younger than her, but they were so similar, she realised. Sometimes they seemed a lot older, sometimes a lot younger. She saw Zie in her head. _That's nice, Kayli. I know I was pretty weird. Now, when you've quite finished, I'd like to see some action! Incidentally-_ it was one of her favourite words-_ that's my boyfriend._ Even in her dreams, Kayli saw the little blush on her friends face, but took her hand off Neil anyway. There were some things that had to make you smile, and that was one of them.

'Take that you barstard! And that! And _that_!' Kayli shouted as she crushed the core of the unfortunate droid and pummelled it a bit more for good measure.

' All right Kayli.' Wedge said quietly, ' Good. Now, get out of there.'

It was a week later. The droid's in the building had been bombed, and the Knight Slayers had taken out those that survived. Zie's body had never been found, and would have been destroyed with the S.D building anyway. Jesse and the others had figured out who the Knight Slayers were when Kayli had smashed a television screen showing the incompetent K-suits and stormed out of the room, yelling about ineffectual police officers and mad androids and coming back into the TV room in her hard suit to ask the other girls if they were coming along. It had given them quite a shock- Jesse had spilt coke all over his trousers, much to Rina's amusement- she couldn't stop laughing. They'd destroyed at least fifty droids that day. And best of all, it was on TV so the Knight Slayers were no longer an urban legend. It didn't really matter that Hayden, Brett and Jesse knew now, of course, since all the S.D police were out of a jobs. The three of them came along on the missions now- but now, as Kayli had explained to him, it was _personal_. Right now, as they were driving back in the support van, Daniel said out of no where,

' It feels like ages since I saw Zie. S' only been a week, yet-'

' She never said much.' Hayden said, sitting up. ' She just- belonged, y'know?' 

Jesse smiled.

' I remember when she threatened to hack into your computer and frame you for fraud when you borrowed her bike and got a ticket once.'

Wedge laughed over the glowing buttons of the control panels.

' Yeah, she was furious about that.'

' Wedge, droid on 24.' Rio snapped, ' I'm going in.'

' Okay Rio, be careful.'

' Never mind me, start feeling sorry for the droid.'

Jesse, Hayden and Brett grinned at each other. Neil, who'd been silent up until now.

' Like Kayli said, now it's _personal_.'

' What!?' shrieked Rio, ' It was set up?' she dropped her coffee cup. Wedge watched it smash into fragments on the tiled kitchen floor. He reflected rather sadly he was going to have to buy a new china set; everyone kept dropping all the _matching_ cups. Drat.

' The man I suspect of triggering the Rouge Device also built it. His name is Philip Fujimi. '

' That's Mackey's DAD!' Kayli shouted, ' Zie's friend! The kid! That's his DAD!' she slammed down the coffee cup, and Wedge watched miserably as the impact caused it to crack and spilt. Coffee leaked over the tabletop. She had reached the phone, and dialled a number.

' Hi, can I talk to Mackey Fujimi please? Thankyou.'

Kayli had broken the news about Zie to Mackey two days earlier with Rina and Jesse. 

' Hi Mackey. How are you, sweetie?'

' Is Zie back yet?' Mackey asked tearfully. Kayli had put the phone on speaker and now she looked at her friends.

' No, Mackey, I'm sorry. Mackey- what happened to your daddy?'

' Mummy said he was dead. Like Zie- but Zie was good, Kay-lee. Good people don't die, do they?'

At the other end of the line the little boy clutched the phone receiver anxiously, waiting for a reply from his friend.

' Never totally, Mackey, they don't.'

It seemed to be good enough for the boy. He smiled at Kayli and said goodnight. She waved and hung up. 

'Mackey said Zie was good. He must mean his Dad was bad.'

They looked at Wedge.

' We went to school together,' he said, setting his coffee cup down _gently_ on the table. ' Philip was a technology genius. He married a beautiful young girl called Ryoko, and they had a son- Mackey. When Mackey was one, his father, who had been a genius, crossed the line from genius to madness. He unveiled a secret weapon to control when and where droid would go rouge. Ryoko was rightfully scared of him, and left him with Mackey. Philip started an organisation called Dikera, under the name of Ken Mahasashi. That droid outbreak was done deliberately.' 

' Why?' Rina asked Wedge, sitting on the bench wearily. It was almost one o'clock in the morning, and all the coffee was making her feel sick. Her friend shrugged and sipped his coffee.

' I don't know. Philip was never one to be predictable, and he was always secretive.'

Rip punched viciously at the air in front of her.

' I'll kill him myself.'

' Only if you get there first.' Kayli and Rina replied. 

' Man, would I hate to be that guy.' Hayden commented from where he was lying on the couch in the opposite room. Jesse looked up from another late-night movie, one with the really lame plot and bad acting, and nodded. He turned to Wedge and waved the remote.

' I don't suppose you have any decent DVD's?' 

Wedge and Neil worked silently at the computers while the girls and Daniel looked on. Hayden had been watching but had fallen asleep and Jesse was making more coffee. In _plastic_ cups. 

' We're in.' 

They crowded around the screen. Wedge and Neil had hacked into the Dikera company database. Rio leaned forward. 

'What's that?' she said, pointing to a red folder marked, 

  


**RESTRICTED ACCESS**

Any file with that name was might as well have, ' Top Secret. All people wishing to look at Dikera's innermost secretive plans, step right up.'  It was just _begging_ to be hacked. Neil cracked the pass code in a matter of minutes with some help from Jesse, who had come back, and they were in. About ten very interesting looking files popped up on the screen. 

' Hm.' Rio said, looking down the list. ' Hey, look at this. ' Life Regenerating Device.' 

Neil cracked another code and read, 

' Life Re-generation. This device is new to Dikera. It enables dead humans to come back to life, possibly after alterations to their bodies, depending on the cause of death, however, a re-generation device does most of that work. However, there is one major side effect that has no been resolved. This side effect means that the person is no longer a human being, but an android. The body exists, and is animate, but susceptible to commands, like an android, and will not have any personality of the former human.' 

' So it's like an empty shell?' Kayli said, screwing up her nose, ' That's not regeneration, that's just creepy.'

' Oh yeah.' Rina agreed, ' anything on rouge droids?'

' Here.' Wedge said, and opened a file after cracking the security code. Jesse watched and wondered what the person who created these codes was thinking. The hardest one had taken them half an hour, and that was only into the mainframe. He shrugged to himself. 

' It says here, the rogue activation device works by being aimed by computer at a target. When this device is activated, it is able to send signals to the droid, termed alive or dead, which makes them go rogue. This process can be completed whether the droid had a core or not, because the signal is received by an independent chip inserted into the android's head cavity. This chip has more power than the core and can only be activated by this device. The device's range can go from one square metre to one hundred square metres, and can reach a distance up to one hundred kilometres from the point of origin.'

' Good grief. With a few clicks, they could control and destroy the entire city!'

' Yes. It also says here the device can only be activated by Philip himself, as the unbreakable security code for the device is only known by him, and in addition to that, it is equipped with fingerprint scanning plate and a retinal scan.'

' He sure values the thing a lot.'

' Obviously,' Jesse said, and added, ' Now we know for sure it was him that activated the device, because no one can get to it. I'm willing to bet it's protected with lasers, pressure and movement sensors, too.'

They reflected on this for a while.

' Where is it?' Kayli asked.

' I'm afraid the man was, through his genius, idiotic enough to believe no one would look for it if it was obvious. It's in Dikera's main building in the centre of Tokyo.'

' Let's go.' Rio snarled, and kicked a chair over savagely as she walked out. 

Kayli punched through the glass door at Dikera and fired an energy spike through the security system. The other two Knight Slayers stepped through.

' We're in.' Rina said. Outside, in the support van, Wedge nodded. 

' Good. Deal with security guards and head for the eighth floor.' 

Daniel flicked through plans of the Dikera building he'd accessed.

' The elevators are still operating,' he said, ' so they can just take them up to the eighth floor, if someone doesn't shut them down. It doesn't look like anyone except out friend's working late tonight, the heat scan's only picking up our girls, ten guards which shouldn't be too much trouble, and our mad scientist.'

' At least the guards shouldn't be too much trouble.' Neil said, looking over Daniel's shoulder. He nodded.

' Gotcha. Rio, take that corridor. I'll take this one.' Rina said, ' Kayli, you take the one ahead. Meet here in five minutes.'

A tall, thin man crouched at his computer and cursed as he saw the Knight Slayers spread out through the bottom level. In his dark, huge room, he was surrounded by computers and small, different points of light.

' Jesus.' He watched as the red one sent a guard crashing into the wall so hard it cracked.  He turned away from the screen and looked with cold black eyes at a body on a think metal plate under a white, faintly luminous machine.

' I shall have to try you out sooner than expected, my dear.' 

' All done?' Kayli asked.

' Of course.'

' What, you thought they posed a challenge? You're kidding, right?' Rina said as they ran towards the elevator. Rio pressed a button.

' Going up.'

' This is very- I don't know- it's just when you go on these kind of missions, you never expect to take the elevator, do you?' Kayli said. She'd had chocolate before they left, Rina remembered. It was possible it had made her more introspective than usual. Still, she had to agree.

' I know,' Rio was saying, ' I mean you kind of expect flying up, dodging bits of flying metal-'

The man in his dark lair hit a button and smiled as the elevator system crashed.

They all felt the elevator jerk to a halt on level three.

' Hmm.' Rina said, ' This is a new development.'

Rio snickered into a gloved hand at the sarcastic tone. 

' Damn. He's onto us.' Kayli said, and punched the roof trapdoor open. The elevator shaft extended above them. Their boosters fired, and the Knight Slayers flew straight up the shaft to level three. Rina irately sliced the door open and stepped onto the landing.

' Why didn't I think of that?'

' You're not special.' Kayli retorted. Yep, Rina thought, definitely the chocolate.

' They are more resourceful than I imagined.' The man said to the prone figure, though it did not reply. ' I hope you are looking forward to some fun, my precious.'

He pulled down a lever and pressed a green button and laughed quietly to himself as white light pulsated around the body, and the hair streaked almost white from the power. Silver eyes snapped open.

Daniel slammed the keys.

' Hey guys, a new heat source just popped up.'

' What?' Jesse said. 'That's impossible!'

' I might be wrong here, but a human just can't turn off and on their body energy, can they/' Hayden said. Jesse rolled his eyes.

' No, genius, that's why it's impossible.'

' It's not human.' Neil said, pointing to stats at the bottom of the screen. Look, there are thin lines of energy running through the body, the kind used in the girl's hard-suits. No human could survive that.'

They regarded the blurred, coloured shape in silence. 

' Did I just hear "not human" ' Kayli said into her helmet comlink.' Because if I did, I really don't like the sound of it. And you lot have gone quiet, I don't like that either. What's wrong?' 

Hayden looked at Wedge.

' Are you sure that chocolate was a good idea?'

Wedge rolled his eyes.

' Nothing's wrong Kayli, you might have to face an advanced droid though. Just be alert. Philip's office is to your left, spanning that entire side of the floor.'

Daniel raised an eyebrow as he looked through the plans.

' It looks he has some big project up there he's working on himse- _what the hell was that?!_'

The three remaining storeys above the eighth floor were blown off into the night sky. Wedge threw up emergency shielding, but everyone instinctively ducked as rubble rained around them.

' Brett! Everyone! Are you all right?' Rio shouted.

' Yeah.' Wedge said, ' Emergency shielding. Bloody good idea, I reckon. What the hell _was_ that though?'

' Beats me. Kayli said something about singular launch refractivity, whatever _that_ means.' 

They all looked at Neil.

' It means the explosive signal went through the something before exploding, like a conduit.' He explained, ' you sometimes find devices in the army, but nothing like _that_!' 

' Hm. It's possible Philip could have advanced that technology,' Wedge nodded, ' for his own purposes, of course.'

Up on the roof, the Knight Slayers looked up at the stars through the little clouds of dust still wafting around them.

' Nice view.' Kayli commented.

' This is not a time to be pondering the mysteries of the universe, Kayli!' Wedge shouted, thinking, that chocolate was definitely not a good idea.

' All _right_, sorry Wedge.' Kayli said, and blasted open a door and stepped inside.  ' It's all metal and computers in here- no people…oh, wait a second…'

' What is _that_.' Said Rio in an awed voice.

' I don't know, but it's creepy.' Rina said. Jesse leaned over and tapped into their visor visuals. They saw two figures in a corner- one, a tall, shadowy man and another, a little girl, who glowed in a white light.

' Philip Fujimi,' Wedge sighed, ' Why, old friend?'

' Uh- Wedge?' Rio said, ' this is no time to reminisce. Who's the girl?'

' My guess is she's our non-human energy source. I think she-it- is a weapon. Be careful, girls.'

The tall man looked up from talking to the girl.

' Oh hello. My name is Philip Fujimi.'

' We know.' Kayli said grimly. He smiled and patted the girl's shoulder. 

' You are wondering about her. She is the Karma, the reason there will be peace.'

' Did she blow off the roof?'

' Yes,' said Fujimi dreamily, ' That was my little girl.'

' I don't call that very peaceful.'

He laughed.

' We needed space,' he said, ' Birds need to fly, do they not?'

' Get to the point.' Brett sighed, resting his head on his hands. 

' What is the Karma?' Rio asked Fujimi.

' You flatter me by asking. This child was once dead, her body broken. I had it brought back here. Then I operated, running energy wire the length of her body, threading the veins with power, and I put a chip in her brain. Then I brought her back to life. This process knocked a few years off her life- back to the age of ten. But now she is a body of energy, under my control.'

' I was right,' Wedge said, ' She is a machine for his use.'

' Does she have a name?' Rio asked.

' I call her Eve.'

Kayli snorted.

' That's sick,' she said,' he means as in Eve, the beginning of mankind. Biblical reference.'

' Totally off his rocker,' Wedge said in a fascinated voice.

' Completely bouncing off the walls.' Neil agreed, crossing his eyes and pulling his hair. Brett snorted with laughter.

' Orders, Wedge?' Kayli asked. Wedge's reply was simple.

' Blow them both up.'

' Ah. The simple, straight forward approach.'

' I really don't think you should have had that chocolate, Kayli.'

Eve, the little girl, turned to face them.

' Good Lord.' Kayli swore.

' Uh, Wedge-'

The little girl was as sweet as a girl could be, with big eyes and innocent face. But something was eerie- the way she glowed white and the way her silver eyes sparkled with their own light. Blue hair down to her shoulders was streaked white at the front.

' I've know Zie for ten years,' Kayli said firmly, ' That is _Zie._ Her hair is different and her eyes are freaky but that is _Zie eight years ago_!' 

' Kayli, it's not Zie.' Wedge said, ' It's her body, but soul of Zie isn't there. It's only an empty shell you see.'

The Karma laughed a sweet childish laugh and raised her hand, a bubble of white energy ball in it.

' Move!' Wedge shouted, just before the ground beneath the Knight Slayers exploded. The men breathed out when they saw them hovering safely in the air above the smoking hole.

' That's our best friend, you creep!' Rio screamed at Fujimi as she landed, and fired at him.

' Eve.'

The little girl giggled in delight as she snatched the bolt out of the air. 

' Dear God,' Rina said, ' she can't be stopped.'

Eve laughed again, and lifted off the ground, throwing balls of energy at the Knight Slayers. 

' Play,' she sand as they dodged, ' play, play!'

' Great,' Rina said, ' She thinks we're toys.'

Eve clapped her hands and giggled happily.

' Eve, it is time to stop playing now.' Fujimi said gently. 

' Can I play later, Philip?' 

' Of course you can.'

Eve laughed and the white around her throbbed. Suddenly Rina felt her suit fail. She crashed to the ground, her friends beside her. Fujimi smiled and started climbing into his own k-suit. 

' I-can't move!' Kayli gasped.

' Me-neither!'

Jesse hit the com button.

' Rina, use the emergency safety escape latch! Hurry before the energy pulse knock you out!'

' Right- uh!' she forced herself out of the suit and fell onto the ground. Metal had wormed up the legs of her hard suit. Kayli followed, then Rio.

' I- never-want- to-fell-anything-like-that-again.' She panted, ' The pressure!'

' Thanks Jesse.' Rina said warmly, ' I couldn't think straight.'

Hayden grinned at his friend, who scowled at him.

Back on the rooftop, Fujimi had scrambled into the suit and sealed it.

' Eve, kill them.'

Eve looked confused. Her smile faded as she looked at the girls.

' I don't believe it,' Wedge said, ' I think she recognises them. Neil, get up there!'

' Why?'

' If she recognise them, she'll definitely recognise you.' Daniel said, catching on.' I'll come.'

' Me too.' Hayden said.

' Me three.' Jesse added, followed them at a run out of the van. Brett shrugged at Wedge and followed his friends. Wedge stared blankly at a screen for a minute, then sprinted after them. The six men skidded to a halt beside the three girls.

' What the hell are you doing here? Get out!' Kayli yelled, taking a gun out of the leg of her hard suit.

' Not likely.' Hayden said, 'Look.'

Eve had dropped her hands. 

' Philip, who are these people?' she said, ' I know them.'

' What? No, you can't!' he shouted, ' You're a mere body! You know no one but me!'

' Do I?' she asked, ' But yet I do know them. Tell me Philip.' 

' They are not important, child. Kill them!'

' Why do you arm yourself, Philip? Are you afraid?' his creation said, turning to face him.

' No Eve,' he said desperately, ' just do as I ask, please.'

Eve looked back at the nine people standing before her. She walked closer, and looked up into Kayli's face.

' What is your name, lady?'

' It's Kayli.' Kayli told her gently, ' Do you know me?'

The girl did not reply but asked everyone in turn their names. Finally she stood before them, like a judge passing a sentence.

' I know all your names, ' she said, ' I now I feel- strange.' She looked at Neil.' Especially about you. It is a nice feeling.' 

' No!' Fujimi shrieked, ' you cannot remember them! You must not!'

' Why must they die, Philip?' she asked him, turning to him, ' I do not want them to.'

Ah hah, Wedge thought, she's too human!

' Because they are bad, Eve.' He told her. She faced him fully, and studied him carefully.

' No,' she said, ' it is not them, but it is you that is evil.'

' No! Eve!'

The little girl released her strange hold over the hard suits, and nodded at her three female friends. They climbed into them.

' Eve!' Fujimi shouted as the three Knight Slayers headed towards him with a vengeance. ' I created you!'

' No,' she said, ' you changed me.' 

Eve knelt down and sent a pulse of energy into the floor, and stood up shakily, and turned to Neil, who had knelt beside her.

' Good people don't die, do they?'

Fujimi screamed as the Knight Slayer's weapons unfolded before his eyes, gleaming points of death filled his black eyes. 

' Eve!'

Eve hid her face in Neil's shoulder, and he hugged the little girl.

' No,' h said, ' Never entirely.' 

As Fujimi died, the computers exploded and Eve suddenly felt limp. The pulse of energy she had sent down came back up. Neil could feel the building shiver. He picked the little girl up and ran with the others, and watched from the van as the building collapsed.

It was the constant beep-beep-beep and the endless white-green walls, and the small of disinfectant that was so familiar now to Neil as he walked through registration to the emergency ward.  He and his friends were now a familiar sight to the staff and patients, and received waves from many. He pushed open the door of room 23B in the emergency ward, and stepped inside. Kayli and Hayden had sat up most of the night next to the bed, giving the usual nurses a chance for a break. It was just before dawn, and the first silver-gold rays of sunlight could be seen coming over the horizon from the large window that looked over the city. Neil stood by Kayli.

' Nothing yet?'

' No change. Steady pulse, nothing else.' Hayden said, standing up and stretching. He ran a hand through mussed blonde hair and looked down at the little girl lying on the bed. The door clicked and they turned to face Rio, holding a little boy's hand.

' Oh, hello Neil. Have you met Mackey? Mackey, this is Neil.' 

The little boy smiled up at the older man.

' 'Lo.' 

' Hullo, Mackey,' Neil smiled, ' Zie told me about you.'

Mackey sat down on the edge of the bed.

' Is that Zie? She looked different.'

' Well, Mackey- Zie had- been changed a little, ' Rio said gently.

Mackey touched his friend's pale cheek.

' Is she going to wake up?' he asked, turning blue eyes on Kayli. The girl smiled tiredly at the boy. Kayli was exhausted, and was beginning to wonder the same thing herself.

' I don't know, Mackey.' She said honestly. Jesse, Rina and Brett came in quietly. Rina shut the door behind them.

' I was going to work and ran into these two at the coffee shop. We decided to pay a visit and see how things are going.' She said, ' How's it looking?'

' The same.' Rio said, flicking through statistics records on the monitoring computer. It had been this way for two weeks. The friends would occasionally substitute for nurses, watching for changes. Nothing had happened. Eve, or little Zie, had remained a stable condition but in a coma. Brett's phone rang. He picked it up and walked outside.

'Uh-huh. Yeah. Sure.'

He walked back in.

' Wedge said he thought most of us would be here, and he's dropping Daniel off at Naomi's place anyway, so he said they'll drop in with breakfast.'

' Naomi?' Kayli said, raising an eyebrow at Rina, who waved a hand.

' Naomi Yamasaki. You know- the girlfriend he's been going out with for nearly two years?'

' Oh yeah,' Kayli said, looking sheepish. Hayden licked his lips.

' Mm, breakfast.' He murmured. Kayli casually hit him over the head with a book while talking to Neil at the same time about hard-suit upgrades.

The sun was halfway over the horizon and the city was turning purple then pink in the frosty sunlight. Hayden started sniffing.

' I know that smell.' He said, ' That smell is very familiar.'

Kayli and Jesse looked at each other and sniffed themselves, and grinned. Brett snapped his fingers.

' Donuts!'

They looked at the totally bemused faces of their friends. Kayli waved a hand languidly.

' It's a cop thing.' 

Wedge and Daniel came through the door, one carrying a twenty-pack carton of donuts and the other a tray of coffee in polystyrene cups. They were all snatched amid greetings and questions. Wedge walked over to the drip running into little Zie's arm and pulled a liquid-filled cylinder out of his pocket and inserted it into the drip. Bubbles of the pale blue liquid travelled down the tube with the other solution. 

' Wedge, what-' Rio began, ' Hey! I'm the nurse here!'

' Don't worry, I found a way to revive her.' He said.

' _What_?!' 

' Ssh, girls, this is a hospital.'

' I know that, I work here everyday! Get to the point, man!'

' Listen, stop losing it for once girl.' Wedge told her. Rio pouted and flung herself into a chair as he continued, ' since she collapsed, I have figured out what was wrong. Eve was connected to Fujimi. It's all very complicated, but the general idea is that it has to do with the regeneration machine and Fujimi being the programmer and person the child received her first orders from.'

' Yeah. ' Blow off the remaining three storeys.' Great first task.' Brett said, rolling his eyes. Rio elbowed him in the stomach and ignored him choking for air as Wedge continued.

' Unless we could find a way to break the link, she would have stayed in this coma forever. At first, I thought it was impossible. But then I remembered how she had refused to kill is, and proved that somehow, the Karma, Eve, was too human. Zie was still there, and taking over. Fujimi's miraculous device had a flaw. So I created this medicine to bring her back.'

' So that's why we haven't seen you in ages!' Rio said. ' Will she be human?'

' No,' Wedge said sadly, ' The energy threads throughout her body will always be there, allowing her fierce destructive power.'

' Will she stay a child?' Kayli asked.

' Yes.'

They looked down at the sleeping child.

' Are you certain this will work the way we want?'

' Nothing is certain, Jesse. Nothing.'

Now the sun was almost above the horizon, and the city was orange-pink under the early morning light. The donuts and coffee had long disappeared, except one donut, which was being eyed by the four police. There had been a declared standoff, and now a pair of green eyes, light blue, dark blue and grey-blue watched the donut as if it would grow wings and fly out of the closed window. 

' Look.' Neil whispered, and released the girl's hand, which he had been holding. Silver-white light spread down from the girl's head to her blanketed legs and feet, and she changed. Still sleeping peacefully, but the features became finer and less rounded, the body longer and developed. The slight curl in her hair straightened.  

' That's Zie.' Kayli said satisfactorily as the white light faded again. ' Wedge? You fail as a scientist.' 

He grinned. Zie's eyelids flickered. Her friends watched owlishly.

' Hello,' she whispered, smiling. ' Did we kick butt?'

' Majorly.' Rio and Kayli grinned.

' Good.' She smiled, which faded. ' I'm not completely human am I.'

It wasn't a question. Wedge shook his head.

' No.'

' You are to us though.' Neil said, touching her hand.

' Oh good.' She smiled, and sat up a bit. She took the last donut and made to bite into it.

' No!'

' Wait!'

' You're sick!'

' Don't!'

Zie stared at Jesse, Hayden, Kayli and Brett. The four turned to face the nurse.

' Rio!'

Rio took the donut off Zie.

' You shouldn't hav-ulp.' She looked at the look on Zie's face, sighed and tossed it back. ' Oh, go on.'

' Yay!' Zie scoffed the donut in one and settled into the pillows. ' Now, tell me _everything_.' 

When they had finished, the sun was well above the horizon and a new packet of steaming hot donuts sat half-eaten on the beside table. Zie looked at her friends over the top of a chocolate-iced one.

' Excuse me? Rio said _Brett_ first?' she asked, still fixated on a minor point in the story. Fortunately, Brett was out getting coffee at this point in time. Rio went red.

' Well, he's not that bad once you get to know him..'

' That's what we've been trying to tell you for months!' Kayli shouted, hitting Rio over the head with her strawberry-iced donut, hurled from the other side of the room. Zie rolled her eyes and looked around the room. Hayden and Kayli sat on the window sill, Kayli dangling her legs over the side so people looking up from the sidewalk saw two black boot prints apparently hanging in mid-air. Neil was sitting on the edge of her bed to the right, Mackey on the foot of the bed. Brett was leaning against the wall now, and Rio sat cross-legged on a chair near the door. Jesse and Rina were arguing about something to do with conniving reporters and roofless courthouses on her left. She looked at Neil.

' I thought they hated each other!'

Neil knew what she was talking about.

' They did, but Kayli said she saw Jesse and Rina at the movies together two nights ago.'

' What was she doing there?' Zie asked.

' That's what I said. It turned out she was with Hayden.'

' Oooh! It's all one big conspiracy! What about Rio? Does she still hate Brett?'

Neil shrugged and bit into a cinnamon donut. 

' No, but it's hard to say whether she likes him. I don't see them together much, and when I do they're arguing.'

' Ah.' Zie grinned. Neil thought he'd missed something, but didn't ask. Some things are better left un-understood. Mackey scrambled up the side of the bed to grab another donut.

' You little pig! How many have you had!' Rio gasped.

' Dunno.' The kid replied munching on the vanilla-iced one Jesse had had his eye on for ages. 

' I wanted that one!'

' Tough cookies, Jesse.' Mackey grinned through bits of crumb.

' Tough donuts.' Zie corrected him, ruffling his hair. 

' Whatever.'

Rio left for a walk to stretcher legs a little while after, and in about five minutes they heard a screech of tires and a honk. 

' Rio!'

Brett skidded out of the room. 

' Oh man, he's got it bad.' Rina said, shaking her head. Kayli leaned over the window more and Hayden pulled her back before she fell over the edge.

' Hey, Look at this.' She said. The others crowded around the window to see Brett skid to a halt beside Rio, who was shouting a stream of abuse at a car driving off from the middle of the road. Brett said something and she turned, waving her arms in the air and shouting furiously. He nodded, folding his arms and said something else. She relaxed a bit and he took her hands.

' Uh-oh.' Mackey said with all the foresight of children, and covered his eyes with his hands just as the pair kissed.

' So has she.' Zie grinned over a steaming cup of coffee. Kayli looked at Hayden and shook her head.

' In the middle of the road, too.'

What d'you think? There's two other stories to this…it's a trilogy…WAH self-insertion is saaad….

Who cares?!?!?

StarChibi-chan 

^_^


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